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2005/09/28

Barbara Lee (D. Oakland) has been trying to get a post office in Berkeley, CA named for Maudelle Shirek, a much admired local civil rights leader, peace activist, and long time city councilwoman. Well yesterday Republicans in the House, at the urging of Steve King (R. Iowa), voted down what is usually a routine little acknowledgement of local leaders. And their reason? That was perhaps best expressed by Representative King who said that Shirek's past:

...sets her apart from, I will say, the most consistent of American values.

What? Is this little shit for real?

What exactly sets her Ms. Shirek apart? A lifetime of service to California? Yup that probably sets her apart from King and the majority of Republicans in Congress. Her leadership, her inspiration, her devotion to progressive causes? Yup that probably sets her apart from a Republican party that was once the champion of progressivism but now only stands for the enrichment of the have's at the expense of the have-nots.

Point of fact, what really sets Ms. Shirek apart is that she's a leftist in a leftist community that Republicans don't like and that they now feel emboldened to punish simply for being leftists. Twits like Rep. King will always try to force their brand of values on anyone they can. And, when Barbara Lee calls a spade a spade as she did here:

...a campaign of innuendo and unsubstantiated 'concern' is better suited to the era of Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover than today's House of Representatives.

...these babies will howl for being exposed as the petty, political thugs that they are. King, in response, went on to praise Joe McCarthy.